


As Different as Fire and Ice

by cosmosatyrus



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Crisis of Faith, Gen, Other, Polytheism, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2015-07-09
Packaged: 2018-01-23 20:12:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1577996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmosatyrus/pseuds/cosmosatyrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two sisters find themselves torn from the quiet suburban life and thrown into a world of heroes and villains.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. As Different as Fire and Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two sisters are recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D., but their differences might prove too great an obstacle.

Officially, it was an "index asset evaluation and intake" mission, but they had taken to calling it the "Welcome Wagon" and the alliteration was, no doubt, the main reason that the name stuck. On the surface, it was the kind of thing you'd give to a rookie agent. In the best case scenario, there wasn't much to it: locate target, convince target to join S.H.E.I.L.D., transport to the Triskelion, and contact HR-- in and out. In reality, there was a reason they gave Coulson these missions. The target could turn hostile or other interested parties might become involved. With Xavier's school, it was a matter of friendly competition, but more often than not, the bad guys wanted in on the action. Such was the case of Mrs. Erica Lowell and her sister, Mrs. Jennifer Matuszewski. 

Coulson reviewed the files, noting that aside from the "mysterious incidents" that local law enforcement couldn't explain, both sisters led fairly normal lives. Two stay-at-home suburban moms with normal, human, husbands. Remembering Banner, he knew that big things could come in mild-mannered packages-- really big things that could level city blocks. He opted to see the younger sister first in the hopes that he could use her as leverage to convince the elder of the two to join the ranks. 

"Mrs. Lowell, I assure you that our health benefits alone are reason enough to join," Coulson sipped iced tea on an ancient floral couch as the dog sniffed his shoes. "Very few organizations are equipped to handle the medical needs of a person of your talents and S.H.E.I.L.D. has the best facilities by far." She side-eyed him, trying to figure out what he wanted from her, but she couldn't see past his friendly demeanor. He scratched the dog's ears and smiled, knowing just the right way to draw her in. Only Romanoff could have done better. "We even offer the best in primary education for talented young people like your son." He'd done his research. Theodore "Teddy" Lowell was six years old and a Stark-level genius with an understanding of circuitry that nearly got him suspended from the first grade. They'd had other difficulties with the public school system, who had branded him a problem child rather than acknowledging his talents. Genius like that could easily go to the dark side and S.H.E.I.L.D. considered little Teddy a good investment.  
Still, Mrs. Lowell was skeptical, "I really don't want to uproot my family and," she sighed, "working for S.H.E.I.L.D. seems a little... hinky."  
"Hinky?"  
"Yeah, hinky."  
Coulson took another sip of iced tea, making a mental note to arrange for more missions in the South, "Would you care to elaborate, Ma'am?"  
She furrowed her brow and checked to see that Teddy was still playing and out of earshot. "I've read the blogs. I know what your people do and I'm not convinced that it's always on the up-and-up. I'd feel weird working for an organization that does those kinds of things."  
"Mrs. Lowell," Coulson set the tea down on a coaster as the dog put its head in his lap, "S.H.I.E.L.D. protects people from threats that most people have written off as myth or fiction. You're familiar with Captain Rogers?" He pointed to a reprint of an old WWII propaganda poster. Mrs. Lowell nodded and flushed slightly. "S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded shortly after he defeated Hydra on the principal that the sharpest minds and most skilled and talented people, such as yourself, might act as a defense against the worst of the worst, just as Captain Rogers' shield had protected others from the threat of Hydra. You can be a part of that great legacy."  
Mrs. Lowell looked at the poster, "Well, I..."  
"I must be going, Mrs. Lowell." Coulson stood and patted the dog on the head one last time, handing her a card after dusting some of the dog hair off of his pants, "but do call if you change your mind." She took the card and he walked out the door toward the black sedan. "3... 2... 1..."  
"Wait!" He turned, a half smile crossing his face. "Can you really help Teddy?"  
"Yes, Ma'am."  
"Then I'm in. We'll have to tell my husband."  
Coulson nodded, "Our people will handle Mr. Lowell. If you and Teddy will come with me, we have a lot of work to do." 

Halfway to the airport, Mrs. Lowell's phone rang. "Sweetie?"  
"Yes?"  
"I just got a call from a research facility in Washington, D.C. They offered me a big grant to do some work there on advanced A.I. and..."  
Mrs. Lowell grinned at Agent Coulson before putting on an obviously exaggerated shocked expression, "You didn't take it, did you?"  
"Well..."  
"You did." She huffed and rolled her eyes, "So, what, you're just going to leave Teddy and me here by ourselves?"  
"No, you can come, too! They said they'd send a car and--"  
"I can't just pick up and leave, Rob. I have a life, you know. This is just like you--"  
"But sweetie, " The argument went on for several more minutes, Mrs. Lowell eventually "agreeing" with her husband.  
Coulson smirked, "You'll make a fine addition to S.H.I.E.L.D., Mrs. Lowell."  
She laughed and hugged her son, "Thank you, Agent Coulson. My, uh, 'gift' isn't my only talent."  
Missing his beautiful Lola, Coulson made himself comfortable in the leather interior of the S.H.I.E.L.D.-issue standard black sedan as he shifted gears for highway speed. With a nod and a smirk, he replied, "We know."

Mrs. Matuszewski was a scientist of the highest caliber whose talents went largely unused. According to their surveillance, she had chosen to stay home with a new baby after the completion of her Master's degree, but there were other issues that had soured her on academia. S.H.I.E.L.D. needed scientists, especially brilliant ones, and Mrs. Matuszewski's additional talents, if properly focused, would make her the perfect addition to the ranks. Coulson's black sedan, followed by several SUVs full of agents arrived at the Matuszewski residence, just as they had done only hours before at Mrs. Lowell's, but this time there was going to be trouble. A distinctive yellow van sat parked next to the second ugliest station wagon he'd ever seen.

"Son of a--" He made a quick call to the other agents, "Beekeeper squad. Approach with caution."  
"Beekeeper Squad?" Mrs. Lowell asked.  
Loading his weapon with an exasperated sigh, Coulson answered, "A.I.M.-- an organization of scientists gone bad. Very bad. Stay here until I give the all-clear." Mrs. Lowell pulled her son closer, nodded, and watched as Agent Coulson approach the front door of her sister's house. He knocked, his weapon and half a dozen agents close at hand.   
Jennifer Matuszewski, holding the tiny hand of a girl no older than two, answered the door in a t-shirt and worn out jeans. "Can I help you?"  
He pretended like nothing was wrong, silently signalling to the other agents to stand down for the time being and to stay out of sight. He flashed his badge, his stance seemingly casual, but his fingers never far from his weapon. "Mrs. Matuszewski, my name is Agent Phil Coulson and I work with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. May I come in?"  
She picked up the toddler and stepped aside. "Please. Can I get you some tea?"  
"Yes, thank you." His sources told him that it was considered rude not to accept hospitality and, if he was to win over Mrs. Matuszewski without any shots fired, he couldn't afford to be rude. Besides, he'd grown to like sweet tea. She came back with a tall glass and he took a sip: mint, with a hint of orange and sweet, but not too sweet.   
"Agent Coulson, this is Dr. Pearce." Coulson shook his hand and tried to remember which one this was. In a few seconds he'd narrowed it down to the paleontologist that was trying to make dinosaur people or the one of the virologists that worked on Extremis. "Now, what can I help you with, Agent Coulson?"  
Coulson set his tea on a coaster, wondering if Pearce was alone and suspecting that he wasn't. "Mrs. Matuszewski, I've been sent by my organization to offer you a job. We could use people like you and our ability to fund your research is almost limitless. We already support several researchers working in systematics and entomology and--"  
"You mean like Hank Pym?"  
"Uh," Dr. Pearce was grinning like the Cheshire cat and Coulson's fingers twitched a little, ready to go for his gun if necessary, "Yes, we've funded some of Dr. Pym's research. He's been a valuable asset--"  
Dr. Pearce laced his fingers together and leaned forward, "We've already offered Mrs. Matuszewski a position at our think tank and I believe she will find more opportunities to do pure science with us. Unlike S.H.I.E.L.D., A.I.M. has the means to allow its scientists to pursue" he gestured broadly, "whatever they want."  
"Like the Extremis virus?" Coulson retorted.  
With her little girl on one hip and a hand on the other, Mrs. Matuszewski shook her head and snapped back, "Nuh-uh, Agent. You got no room to criticize. You fund Dr. Henry godsdamn misogynistic wife-beating research-stealing Pym and I ain't workin' with that no good son of a--"  
"Like we've explained repeatedly, the Extremis virus was the product of a few rogue scientists and--"  
Just then, Mrs. Lowell walked in. "Mrs. Lowell, please return to the car." Coulson tried to shuffle her out the door again, but a hand caught his arm.  
"Don't tell her what to do!" Mrs. Matuszewski, still holding the little girl, stepped between him and her sister.   
Mrs. Lowell slammed the door behind herself, "I can take care of myself, Jen!"  
"The hell you can!" Coulson stepped to the side. The last place he wanted to be was within the blast radius of two superpowered sisters who were at odds with one another. He pulled the gun loaded with night-night rounds from its holster, but did not raise it. "Remember when Donny pushed you down the stairs? Who was it that came to help you?"  
"I was five!" Mrs. Lowell huffed, "I'm a grown woman and can take care of myself. Stop treating me like I'm a child!"   
The room got noticeably hotter, the ice in the tea melting almost instantly and the air conditioner struggling to keep up. "Why don't we all just calm down?" Coulson's eyes flicked from one sister to the other as he tried to keep an eye on Dr. Pearce, who stood up and before he could be stopped, pulled a syringe from his pocket and injected himself with a green fluid that seemed to glow. "That's not good," Coulson thought out loud. Almost instantly, Dr. Pearce's skin turned green and leathery and his face transformed into a hideous mask with yellow eyes and sharp teeth. "The dinosaur guy," Coulson sighed, "That's not good at all."  
"Mommy?" the little girl hid her face in Mrs. Matuszewski's shirt and started to cry just as the glass in the windows melted and the wall caught fire.  
"Get out!" Mrs. Matuszewski turned bright, glowing red, "All of you!" Mrs. Lowell grabbed two sharp spikes of ice from thin air and hurled them at Dr. Pearce, who had begun to step toward Mrs. Matuszewski with his long, hooked claws. "Great, Erica, just great! Now you've ruined my chance to get a job with these guys!"  
"I don't know if you've noticed, Jen," Mrs. Lowell responded as she threw softball-sized balls of ice at Dr. Pearce, "but he's a dinosaur... guy... thing. I'm pretty sure he wasn't going for a hug."  
Coulson aimed at Dr. Pearce, but hit the wall behind him where a poster of Albert Einstein hung in a beat-up frame. "Dammit!" Mrs. Matuszewski exclaimed, "Get out! Get out! Get out!" The wall behind her exploded outward to reveal S.H.E.I.L.D. agents in combat with men in what looked like yellow beekeeper suits. Mrs. Matuszewski turned toward the giant gaping hole in her wall toward the fight outside, "And get the hell out of my flowers!"  
Coulson fired another shot at Dr. Pearce, who had moved much faster than he expected. Mrs. Lowell continued her barrage of ice balls, but fared no better than Coulson. Dr. Pearce hissed and spat something that hit Mrs. Matuszewski in the shoulder. As she yelled in pain, he shouted to the men in yellow, "Grab the child!" and though he moved more quickly than most normal humans, Agent Coulson was a fraction of a second too slow to prevent A.I.M. from taking the little girl.   
"DELIA!" Mrs. Matuszewski screamed and reached for her baby as time seemed to slow. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents backed away, weapons drawn, but not firing for fear of hitting the little girl. Delia Matuszewski continued to cry, reaching desparately and crying for her mother. "Hurt her and I will end you all!" Mrs. Matuszewski sobbed.   
Mrs. Lowell dropped her hands, ice falling to the floor as she pulled her sister close, "It's going to be okay. They'll get her back, Jen."  
"Let the little girl go and you can walk away from this, Pearce," Coulson commanded, his weapon aimed at Dr. Pearce's yellow eye.  
Dr. Pearce laughed, a forked tongue flicking between sharp teeth as he hissed, "Forget it, Coulson. Her blood holds the key to stabilizing the Extremis virus and I plan on handing her over to some colleagues of mine for just that purpose. They've promised me a very large sum of money for this little rugrat and I'm going to deliver." He snatched her from one of the men in the yellow beekeeper suits and put her over his scaly shoulder.   
Mrs. Matuszewski screamed again, her skin beginning to glow. Coulson inched forward, "If you don't hand her over," he continued, making sure Pearce was focused on him and not the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that surrounded them, "Mrs. Matuszewski here is going to go supernova." Pearce scoffed and backed away slowly, his yellow eyes still on Coulson. "I wish I were exaggerating, Dr. Pearce, but you're going to be a tiny pile of ash in a very large crater if you don't put the girl down."  
"Never!" he hissed, "She's mine!"  
Coulson fired a single shot into the monster's mouth and down his throat. As Pearce gagged and fell over, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents overtook the A.I.M. operatives, disarming them with ease. Coulson picked up little Delia and kicked the unconscious form of Dr. Pearce, who had begun to revert to his mammalian form. "Take this piece of drek to The Fridge," he ordered, and two agents dragged him away. He handed the little girl to her mother, who cooled almost instantly as they embraced.   
Teddy ran up to his aunt and hugged her, an agent running behind him, "Aunt Jen!"  
Coulson narrowed his eyes at the agent chasing Teddy, "You were supposed to keep him in the car, Agent Miller."  
"He, uh," Miller rubbed the back of his neck, "He hacked the car, sir."  
"He hacked the car?"  
"Yes, sir."   
Coulson sighed and dismissed the agent, making a quick call to HQ for a clean-up crew and secure transport. After he hung up, he turned to the two sisters, "Mrs. Matuszewski, our offer still stands and I'll make sure Dr. Pym goes through intensive training regarding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s policies on equality in the workplace and academic integrity. Mrs. Lowell, we have a plane waiting to take you and your son to D.C.."  
"Wait a minute, Agent Coulson," Mrs. Lowell replied, "I'm not going without my sister. We have our differences, but she's family and I can't just leave them here like this. If she doesn't want to go, I don't want to go." She turned to her sister, "Jen, I'm sorry about the time I pretended to be asleep and smacked you in the face... twice."  
"That was on purpose?"  
"...Yeah."  
They both laughed through tears and hugged again, "I'm sorry I yelled at you for not making your bed every day," Mrs. Matuszewski sniffed. "I was a crappy sister."  
"We were both crappy to each other," Mrs. Lowell admitted.   
Mrs. Matuszewski nodded, "Let's be grownups now, okay?"  
"Okay."  
Just as paddy wagons full of A.I.M. operatives pulled away, a school bus arrived at the corner and one brown-headed girl about twelve years old made her way toward the Matuszewski residence. She stopped at the edge of the yard, took one look at the gaping hole in the side of the house, sighed, and walked up the stairs. "What happened, Mom?"  
Coulson surveyed the damage and came up with what he thought was a pretty decent cover story, "There was a gas leak. We arrived just in time to put out the fire."  
"In the living room?" she asked Coulson, noting the absence of fire trucks. She sighed again, rolled her eyes, and turned to her family, "Hi, Aunt Erica. Mom, did you explode the house?" Mrs. Matuszewski nodded. "I guess that means no sleepover this weekend." Her mom shook her head.  
"You don't have to lie to my kid, Agent Coulson. Hyacinth knows about me and my gift." She stood, hugged her daughter and asked, "How was school?" as though it were a normal day.  
Hyacinth shrugged and put her books on the stairs. "It was school."  
"Well, I think I might have a job in Washington D.C." Mrs. Matuszewski glanced at her sister, who nodded, "doing science like I've been wanting to do."  
"What does dad think?"  
Mrs. Matuszewski shrugged, "I guess we'll have to ask."  
"We can offer him a position as well, Ma'am," Coulson offered. "Our people can secure your belongings and have everything transported to our facilities in D.C. as soon as possible. We'd love to have you."  
"And they've got good schools, too" Mrs. Lowell added. "They're going to help Teddy."  
Mrs. Matuszewski looked impressed, but her elder daughter seemed doubtful. "About that..." Hyacinth's mother raised an eyebrow and Coulson listened intently, "I talked to a guy at school today about a gifted school in New York."  
Coulson shook his head, "Bald guy? Rides around in a wheelchair?"  
"How did you know?"  
He cursed under his breath. "Let's just say we've worked together before." He crossed his arms and leaned on the banister, watching as most of the rest of the agents cleared out. "Dr. Xavier's facilities are almost as good as ours and they're better equipped to handle kids like Hyacinth. Honestly, it's not a bad option. We can make sure you see as much of your family as you want to and I'm certain the good doctor will go along. We go way back."  
Hyacinth clapped her hands and jumped up and down, "Please, Mom? Can I go?"  
Mrs. Matuszewski nodded, "If that's what you want to do."  
"YAY!" Hyacinth hugged her mom and picked up her little sister to give her kisses, "I feel like I just got my Hogwart's letter!"

Weeks later, Mrs. Matuszewski and Mrs. Lowell sat together over coffee and pastries in a cafeteria on the first floor of the Triskelion. "Hyacinth is doing great, making straight A's, kicking butt, all of that. How's Teddy?" Mrs. Matuszewski paused in her knitting to take a bite of her breakfast.  
Mrs. Lowell continued her tatting, "He's working with Stark! Apparently, he's the only one who could keep up."  
"Ooh! Very nice!" Mrs. Matuszewski replied. "Guess who I saw yesterday?"  
"Who?"  
"Hank Pym."  
"Uh-oh."  
"Yeah, I gave him a piece of my mind and he--"   
They heard metal hit the tile floor with a clonk and turned to see tall, blonde, and handsome in skin-tight blue body armor, "Ladies? I'm sorry to interrupt, but--" Captain America held a pair of needles and a ball of wool in one hand, "I was hoping you could lend a hand." 

Agent Phil Coulson looked on from a balcony on the second floor as Cap sat down and started knitting with the two sisters and he smiled. The S.H.I.E.L.D. family had grown a little bigger and he was proud to have brought these two into the fold. While everyone might not live happily ever after, at least they had each other when the next crisis came. They would all stand together, as a family, a sheild against any threat.   
Little did they know that the next threat would come from within...  



	2. Crisis of Faith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jen Matuszewski joins the Avengers and eventually meets Thor, which is complicated for a polytheist.

After the collapse of S.H.I.E.L.D., my husband and I made an attempt to return to the normal life. They were glad to have him back at his old job and the house had been rebuilt just as it was. Aside from the loss of one of the rose bushes nobody would have been able to tell that it had ever had a gaping hole in it. Coulson himself had assured me that the house was off the radar as far as Hydra was concerned, but nothing is certain in these times. We moved back in anyway and I'd found that even my yarn had been replaced. I'm guessing _someone_ had found my Ravelry profile and left me a box in the living room. On top was a poster that read "Remember Pearl Harbor. Purl Harder" and showed a hand holding a pair of knitting needles. Scrawled on the back was a note, "Hope this helps you knit your bit. If I need a hand with my knitting, I know who to call. Yours, Cap." 

Every now and then, I'd get a package with really nice fiber or yarn and no return address, but there'd be a little card inside with The Shield on it and I knew that he was still looking out for me. The news coverage of what happened in Sokovia was vague, but they'd said the Avengers were there, so I prayed to my gods that they'd all come out of it okay. NPR was still reporting on the aftermath when a black SUV pulled up in my driveway and I cursed out loud, grateful that Delia was sound asleep. Black SUVs usually meant bad news, but the driver was no agent of any kind; it was the Star-Spangled Man himself, though out of uniform today. "Need help with your knitting?" I shouted.

"Yes, Ma'am," came his reply, "I just can't get the hang of Argyle."

"Neither can I." 

He laughed and, carefully avoiding my new rose bush, came up the steps. "Then we can learn together. May I come in?"

"Absolutely. What brings you to our humble abode?" He had neither shield nor knitting in hand, making me the slightest bit suspicious. "You're not here to talk about knitting."

I offered him a seat in the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee, which he politely accepted. "No, Ma'am, I'm here to see if you'll join us."

"Join whom?" I asked.

"The Avengers."

"You've got to be kidding me." 

He shook his head. "Would it help if I dressed like Uncle Sam and said 'We want you!'?"

"It might," I replied, "Captain Rogers, sir, I have kids."

"Then I will see to it personally that they stay safe."

"My husband has a job."

"Technically, the Avengers are private consultants employed by Stark Industries. You'll receive a substantial salary and, if he wants a job, we'll find him one. Money won't be an issue."

"I'm nowhere near in the same league as you guys. You're major league. I'm... little league."

At this he smiled and shook his head, "I don't know if you're trying to talk me out of convincing you to join the Avengers or trying to talk yourself out of it. Yes, we do dangerous work-- we do the most dangerous work on the planet, but we do it because it's the right thing to do. I've read what you've written on the internet, the articles on religious freedom and the things you believe. You said you believe in democracy, in freedom, and in dignity for all people and I'm just here to ask if you're willing to fight for those beliefs."

"You know I would. I did, as a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist. I thought I was doing the right thing and I thought I was joining the good guys, but now I don't even know what they're doing with my research, if they're using it to hurt people. Aside from you, I don't know who to trust and I don't know that what happened in D.C. couldn't happen again." Tears welled up as I remembered that day, "Delia was in the on-site preschool on the first floor. John went there first and took down the Hydra agent that had been their teacher and managed to somehow get the kids out and safe. I was upstairs in R&D when it all went to Hel. We lost two of our best lab techs and Dr. Trapani, who had been helping me with the algorithms. From what I heard about Insight, they bastardized some of that same work and would have killed millions if you hadn't stopped them. I can't do that anymore. I just want to stay home and forget we ever went to DC."

He leaned back in the chair, sighing, "Hydra played us all and I don't blame you for wanting to get away from it, but I don't think any of us can really get away from the kinds of threats we face now. Not here, not anywhere. You have the heart of hero, Mrs. Matuszewski, and right now, the world needs all the heroes it can get, even the little leaguers." He sipped his coffee as I compulsively cleaned the kitchen. "You don't have to decide now, but if you want, I can take you to our facility and you can decide when you're ready."

I closed my eyes for a moment in a quick prayer and I felt a tug toward Cap and the more terrifying option. "Okay, we can go, but I want us all to go together. This is a decision the family has to make." In all honesty, the decision had been made the moment we stepped into the quinjet. John was all-in when he heard what joining the Avengers would entail and Delia was just happy to meet "Cakkin 'Merica," as she so gleefully called him. Even Hyacinth was enthusiastic when we called her at Xavier's school later that day. She told me, "You should join the Avengers. That is the coolest thing you will ever do... but don't die. That'd suck."   
So I joined. When I'd first joined S.H.I.E.L.D. with my sister, being a "fifth string Avenger" was a joke and now I was to train with the best. She had declined the invitation, a new baby is a good reason to want the quiet life, but with Jarvis' help, I kept an eye on her. We got to meet almost everyone the first week. The first day, we met Dr. Banner and Miss Wanda, who was the n00b before I got there. Black Widow brought Hawkeye in with broken ribs, a twisted ankle, and a concussion two days later. Delia got to know them as Auntie Nat and Mr. Clint while he recovered. It was almost a week in before I saw Mr. Stark, who was covered in grease and arguing with Col. Rhodes. "Uncle Rhodey" took to Delia right away, but Mr. Stark kept his distance a little. After another week, Mr. Stark was playing games with her while she sat on his lap. I'd heard about Thor, of course, and there was another new fellow that went by "Vision," but them I didn't meet. We started training right away, but they didn't send me into the field until six weeks later and even then, I didn't feel ready to run with the big dogs. "Ready," as it turns out is a luxury and a disgruntled ex-Stark Industries employee had hostages and a weapon of mass destruction in Cleveland. What we didn't bank on was the army of giant cockroaches. 

Jarvis filled us in on our target en route. Holly Itzler worked in a weapons manufacturing plant as a middle manager with aspirations to R&D. She'd submitted over four hundred designs in her ten years at SI, most of which would have been non-functional, but some of which were too destructive, even for the pre-Iron Man days. She'd been laid off during the re-structuring of Stark Industries and was given a generous severence package. Stark had only heard of her in passing. After her tenure at SI, she worked for Justin Hammer and, after Hammer's arrest was laid off when their board of directors decided to make some strategic "budget cuts." After that, she dropped off the radar. When we arrived, Cap directed the battle from the ground: "Iron Man, you, Col. Rhodes, Scarlet Witch, and I will herd the bugs toward the lake. Hawkeye, you and Falcon take care of any stragglers. Black Widow, we need recon on the baddie. Hulk, head to the lake. You know what to do." He turned to me, "Solar Flare, you're our resident entomologist. How do we kill these things?"

I'd expected to be using my powers to roast them or something. I'd learned to focus and direct it into an explosive beam of heat and that's what I'd prepared to do. The bugs didn't wait for my reply and Cap dispatched three before I could even get my bearings. "I'm a lepidopterist, Cap. If they were evil butterflies, I'd have you covered. Give me a minute to think." 

"We don't have a minute." A wave of bugs was met with a wall of Avengers resistance and within seconds, most of us were covered in hemolymph. 

A curse under my breath was met with a chiding chorus of "Language!" from my teammates, an inside joke that I'd not yet been brought in on. I blasted another bug while the wheels turned in my head. "Can I talk to Jarvis? Is that a thing?"

A voice in my earpiece said, "At your service. How can I be of assistance?"

"Thank goodness. Can you cross-reference what we know about my powers with research on radioactivity and cockroaches?" 

There was a calm, "Accessing" and a heartbeat of silence. "It appears that a radial blast at your highest capacity would exceed radiation tolerance for 90% of normal cockroaches."

Another roach knocked me over and was trying to eat my face when Cap decapitate it with the shield. I spared half a second to be completely grossed out before telling him, "I can kill them, most of them, but I can't do this near people. Hulk is probably the only one that's safe when I explode." 

It was at that moment Thor showed up, lightning preceding him to the ground as he descended, the smell of ozone and fried bug wafting through the streets. "I trust I have not missed the battle?"

"Just getting started." Cap explained the situation, "We got a lot o' bugs, a bomb, and hostages. If you can get Ms. Sunshine to Hulk and take care of the bugs, we'll take care of the baddie."

Before I could object, I was in the air in the arms of a god. The flight lasted seconds, not long enough for a crisis of faith, and I had a Hulk smashing bugs by my side. Within a minute, we were surrounded and I knew this was my cue. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and imagined a circle of light around me. "Holy Apollon," I prayed out loud, "Fill me with your light that this land may be purified." I felt the familiar wave of heat rise in me, followed by an audible "WHOOM." My vision went white and when I could see again, Hulk had but a few bugs left to smash. I pulled the heat back into myself, releasing the extra energy back toward the sun. 

Between Stark, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, and local law enforcement, the bomb was contained, the hostages released, and Ms. Itzler arrested. Afterward, Tony took us to a place called Slyman's for sandwiches. It was part debriefing, part re-fueling, and I couldn't help but stare at Thor. "He's got a girlfriend, Sunshine." Stark gave me a friendly pat on the arm and Sam chuckled.

With a nervous laugh, I blushed deeply and explained, "That's not why I'm staring." I swallowed hard, "I'm a polytheist and that's Thor. I don't know if I'm having a crisis of faith, feeling completely validated about my beliefs, or both. Either way, I'm not sure I can handle this."

Natasha smiled and said, matter-of-factly, "You're not going to find out what you want to know if you don't ask questions."

"How about a real introduction first?" Cap offered, "Thor, this is Jen Matuszewski. She's an entomologist who blows things up with solar energy. Her code name is Solar Flare, but mostly, we just call her Sunshine. Sunshine, this is Thor."

"Well met, Lord Thor."

"Well met, Lady Sunshine!" His smile made the back of my neck prickle weirdly and his voice made my ribcage vibrate. It was a strange sensation, "What questions have you?"

So, in a sandwich shop in Cleveland, it all came down to this. "I guess the big question is: Are you a god?"

"Aye." He replied.

"Do you hear prayers?"

"Aye," he answered, "and answer them when I can. Many across the worlds have called for my aid and I have defeated foes from the icy mountains of Niffleheim to the thick forests of Svartalfheim and on worlds that defy belief, even for me."

I had a feeling then that the Eddas had left some things out. "So..." I hesitated before this next question, "The Olympians? Are they...?"

"I know them well!" He grinned broadly, "Dionysos makes a fine wine and Aphrodite tells excellent tales." I thought I saw a blush in his cheeks at the mention of her name and he continued, "In my younger days, I was tutored in part by Zeus. Would you care to meet them? They are most hospitable."

"I..." The blood drained from my face, "I can't handle this right now." 

"What troubles you, Lady Sunshine?" 

Six weeks as an Avenger had been mostly physical training and I hadn't felt like I could ask probing questions about religion, but I could surmise a few things. Dr. Banner, Stark, and Natasha were probably atheists and Cap, Sam, and Miss Wanda had some sort of monotheistic belief, but nobody went to church that I could tell. Clint's religion, I'm pretty sure, was Dog Cops. "For all of y'all, Thor is just an alien that people thought was a god a long time ago. For me, it's complicated. It's just that... I'd always thought my powers had been a gift from Apollo. Partly as a result of what happened to me and my sister, I've been a polytheist for almost twenty years, before we ever saw Lord Thor. I tried not to think about it, but now here you are and it's rocking my world a little bit."

Dr. Banner, who usually spoke little, offered, "You're a scientist. You have an idea, a testable hypothesis, and the means to test that hypothesis. The only reason you hesitate is because the results might not be what you expect. I haven't worked in the lab with you yet, but I've read your thesis and you seem to approach science like someone who doesn't care what the establishment says. You listen to the data. So listen to the data."

"Wasn't that long ago," Clint said around a mouthful of corned beef, "I didn't believe in aliens. Just goes to show you what I know."

Several nodded at this and Miss Wanda spoke, "You are new. I am new as well, so is Sam. If you are afraid of what we will think of you, do not be. We are all... strange, in our own way, but we need not fear each other. We are a family."

"That's right," Sam agreed, "If Jesus Christ was eating sandwiches with us, I might have a question or two my own self, but these guys right here wouldn't ever laugh at me for having a crisis of faith about it." After a second, he added, "Tony might, though, he's mean."

Mr. Stark shrugged, "Yeah, that's true, but Cap would kick my ass if I crossed the line."

"Without hesitation," Cap laughed, "He's an asshole, but he's not cruel."

"Thank you for that, Cap." Mr. Stark patted him on the shoulder. "Listen, you're smart. You're capable. You blow shit up. I admire that in a person and at the end of the day, all that matters is that the good guys win and the bad guys lose. I happen to believe that everything has a logical, scientific explanation, but if what you do turns your crank and gets the job done?" He shrugged, "Do what works."

Thor carried himself like a man who had never questioned his place in the Universe and he spoke kindly to me. "The gods have always had agency in Midgard and whether it is called magic or science is of no consequence. Whether you believe we are but beings from afar or worthy of worship does not change that we are here."

My sandwich had begun to get cold, "Apollo has never come to me in the way you are here now. I feel him, I hear him, I have even seen him in visions and dreams, but I have never been in arms' reach of his bodily person, let alone in his actual arms like I was with you today-- remind me to tell my husband that was strictly business, by the way."

"It'll be on YouTube before dinner," Clint reminded us.

"Should be fine, then," I nodded, "Anyway, Lord Thor, tell me why that is. Why have I never seen my gods as I am seeing you now?"

"That I cannot say, my lady, but my offer stands. Should you wish to ask them yourself, I will gladly escort you to their halls." He smiled in a way that made me feel like everything would be okay and then whispered something to our server, "I will be near for several days, but for now, we shall tell tales and sing songs of our brothers and sisters in arms!" The server returned with a round of beers, each bigger than my whole head, "A toast to Lady Sunshine, slayer of insects!" 

I don't remember much after that except vague impressions of Miss Wanda and Natasha with me in the ladies' room and someone saying "I've cleaned up worse." When I woke up, there was water and Tylenol on my nightstand and my husband next to me scrolling through something on his StarkPad.

"I think I've been hazed."

John laughed, "Yeah, I talked to Natasha."

"What did she say?" I managed to sit up and drink some water and take the Tylenol, hoping that the room would stop spinning soon.

"That you held your own." He was playing solitaire now, "...for the first round."

I slid back under the covers, pulling them entirely over my head, groaning in my misery, "Drinking with gods is dangerous." There was a pat on my behind and I fell asleep again.

Eventually, I managed a shower and made my way to the mess hall to find a bowl of soup and a shot glass waiting for me. "Solyanka and pickle juice," Natasha explained with wry smile, "It was my turn to care for the afflicted."

"Thanks."

She was having a PB&J with a side of potato chips, "So, are you going to go see them?"

I'd taken a few experimental bites of soup and it was weird, but oddly soothing, "See whom?"

"You told Thor you wanted to see your gods. He offered to take you and then you got very, very drunk." She seemed amused, but kind.

I sipped the pickle juice, which did settle the stomach a little, and remembered what had been said before the... whatever it was we drank. "I don't know. It's a lot to deal with."

"You should go. The worst thing that could happen is that you could be wrong about something. We're human," she smiled a little, "It happens. I'm sure they'll understand. They've been dealing with us for a long time." I nodded and there was a long silence as I ate my soup. "So how _did_ you get your powers?"

"I was a kid, just eight years old when it happened. Mom took us to a lecture at Oak Ridge..."

\---

It was the grand opening of the neutrino collector at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the public had been invited, in part to reassure everyone that it was safe and to explain how understanding neutrinos would advance our scientific understanding of the Universe. This was 1982, well before the Chitauri invasion, when many thought we were alone as a sentient species. Bruce Banner had yet to build the gamma bomb, Tony Stark was just a rich genius, and Steve Rogers was still frozen under the ice. In the great tapestry of the Fates, heroes were still being woven into greatness. This is one of many threads.

Ms. Cameron brought her two daughters to the grand opening in the hopes that it would provide some entertainment and intellectual stimulation. Both were gifted children, far ahead of their peers in cognitive development, but behaviorally still very much acted their age. They'd called it "uneven development," and it was the source of many parental woes. The youngest, Erica, was four and had a tendency to run off to satisfy a voracious curiosity, and the elder, Jen, invented elaborate and imaginative stories. Fifteen minutes in to the slideshow, Erica began to fidget and Ms. Cameron searched her purse for an elusive set of crayons to keep her busy. "Jen, Erica's crayons are in the car. You two stay here. I'll be back in two minutes." Ms. Cameron kissed their foreheads and left the darkened room, but as soon as she'd gone, Erica had wormed her way out of her seat and darted into the hallway.

Jen chased after, "Erica! Mom said stay put! Come back!" Her sister only giggled and ran faster. In her mind, because chasing your little sister in a nuclear research facility is boring, Jen was hunting an evil pixie through a great forest full of terrible beasts. A story unfolded in her mind about whales that flew through the sky and kingdoms whose philosophies centered around color theory. She was in the white kingdom that hoped to unite all the warring factions, if only she could catch the evil pixie that could ruin it all. Neither of them saw the sign that read "RESTRICTED AREA: UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL PROHIBITED" in giant black letters on a yellow background. There are no such things in the forests of fantasies and gregarious four-year-olds are not known for their willingness to comply with grownups' signs. Jen followed Erica through another door with a red sign (obviously a ruse put there by the Red Kingdom. Surely it didn't apply to her.) that opened into a vast room filled with shining golden orbs. "Whoa." they both said together. It was quieter than any place they had ever been and not even the hum of machinery could be heard. 

Jen broke from her fantasy for a moment and Erica began to inspect the globes as though she were a tiny psychic gazing into the hundreds of crystal balls. There was a faint vibration under their feet and Jen began to pull her sister toward the door. "We should go. Mommy will be worried." At that moment, the globes began to glow and arcs of electricity formed a web between them, Jen threw her sister to the ground and covered her body with her own as a white light filled the room. Part of the roof came down and the sun shone brightly on Jen's back, Erica in her shadow. The last thing Jen remembered before she passed out was a man with blonde hair and a golden sword.

Erica was apparently unharmed and Jen escaped with a broken leg and a concussion. How two little girls broke through the security of a National Lab was kept quiet and Jen's doctor bills and physical therapy bills were graciously covered by an unexpected grant. A short article on the accident at Oak Ridge in the local paper blamed a power surge and space debris as the causes for the damage to the neutrino collector. They assured the public that it had been a freak accident and that there was never any real danger. Jen and Erica were never mentioned. 

Eight years passed and they had put the incident behind them when a fight between the two sisters revealed their power. They had been in the backyard one afternoon, waiting for their mother to return home from work, when they began arguing. The subject of the argument wasn't important. They were two teenage girls living in the same room, each needing control of her own space, but neither having it. When the yelling devolved into pushing and when anger had suppressed all reason, they locked hands. The younger sister's hands began to form ice against the elder sister's, but was met with a wall of heat that caused the ice to explode into steam, knocking the two backwards and away from one another. A sapling crabapple tree took the brunt of the blast and, horrified that they'd killed it, they agreed never to mention their powers to their mother or anyone else. "We'll tell her I fell on it." Jen offered, "We were just playing and I fell."

Erica nodded. "Yeah, that's good. Let's not do that again."

They lived their lives under the radar, each with a husband, house, and kids in the suburbs until S.H.I.E.L.D. called them to service.

\---

"...And we all know how well that worked out." I concluded.

She pushed the soup toward me, an indication that I really should finish it, "You say you saw someone before you passed out: a man with a golden sword?"

"I saw him again in a vision in my undergrad days and he told me his name was Apollo. My logical, skeptical brain tells me that he's a product of my imagination, but I had never before heard of Apollo carrying a golden sword." I had a bite of pickle from my soup, "So I researched him. I read everything I could get and, sure enough, there it was in the Iliad, 'Apollo of the Golden Sword.' It all started to make sense to me, so I made a commitment to become a Priestess of Apollo. I wanted to walk a path he would be proud of and to serve him as best as I could. Everything I've done up until now has been to that end and the possibility of meeting him like I've met Thor shakes me to my core."

Natasha seemed to think for a minute, "Even if it could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that your prayers were never heard, would you regret anything you've done?"

"I'd feel ridiculous."

"But would you regret it?"

I took a deep breath and let it out, "No. I'm proud of my work."

She put her hand on my back and pulled me into a sideways hug, "So do science on it. Poke it with a stick. Find out what it's made of and draw some new conclusions if you have to. Whatever happens, we'll be here."

I talked to my family that evening and then to Thor. We'd leave the next morning for Olympus.


End file.
